Alisa Keeton on the Biblical Approach to Wellness

Most of us have a complicated relationship with the word “fitness.” It tends to either be the bane of our existence or the center of our existence. Our insecurities about our bodies, habits, and food choices immediately start rushing to the forefront of our minds any time that word comes up in a conversation.

Alisa Keeton wants to help us change this mindset. That’s why she founded Revelation Wellness, an organization with a mission of “helping people love God, get healthy, be whole, and love others.” At Revelation, weight loss or improving our physical appearance isn’t the goal. Instead, the goal is health on every level. Alisa explains, “It’s really a mind-body connection. We are whole people. When God says to love Him with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength, that’s a high call, but it’s an integrated call.”

Alisa discovered her passion for fitness before her passion for Jesus. She took her first workout class as a teenager and immediately fell in love. From that moment on, she began working relentlessly to get her body in the best shape possible. Unfortunately, this didn’t bring her the happiness she was looking for. She says, “Fitness became obsessive for me. My body looked good on the outside. I looked like I had everything together. But on the inside, I was lacking. I was anxious. I didn’t feel content.”

Then a friend at the gym asked her to attend a church service. At that service, Alisa heard the gospel and her heart came alive. Suddenly, she found the purpose that had been alluding her. That first Sunday, the sermon was about the woman at the well. She knew that she needed the living water that Jesus offered.

But Alisa also had a different perspective than a lot of other Christians. From all of her years of working as a fitness trainer, she understood how the body, mind, and spirit are connected. She found that many people viewed the physical and spiritual as completely separate—and they were struggling because of it.

“What I’ve noticed in my field for the last 35 years,” Alisa says, “is that in the theology of the head, people know God loves them, but they still struggle to actually feel like they are loved by God. It’s not just that they need more Bible studies. They need to understand the things they’ve lived through as a human being with a body and flesh and a brain, how sin is not just a spiritual fallout but a physical one too. Adversity and trauma and trouble that we go through in life—whether it’s divorce, accidents, bullying, shame, abuse—all of those things change us on a biological level.”

That’s how Revelation Wellness was born, out of Alisa’s desire to help people heal physically, mentally, and spiritually. What started as a dream has blossomed into a movement. Today, Revelation has trained over three thousand trainers who are hosting communities all over the world. They are working with marginalized communities, cancer patients, convicted felons, and so many other people groups to offer restoration and healing. Revelation Wellness is truly helping people learn to love God with all their heart, soul, mind, and strength.

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